Vertical Screen Printing

[Doug Fielder]

G'Day all,

I was reading about Steve Parrish on the main page and it said he had a trick to vertical screen printing before and I guess afterward. I too have heard of this while I was taking classes in glass gilding with Brendon Brandon a few years back.
Can anyone describe, or is there a book that talks about how this is done?

Thanks!

[Doug Fielder]

Sorry ...

[Mike Jackson]

These two photos were taken by Joe Crumley at the Oklahoma Bash in 1982. I watched him screen vertically several times, but unfortunately, I never documented the entire process with photos.

I can generally describe the process, though I think he took a few extra "showman" steps you might not need to do.

In the top photo, he is using a level to scribe a horizontal line for the top edge of the artwork. I believe he used a Dixon China Marker (pencil).(Normally, I feel safer measuring down from the top edge of the aluminum frame, since I have been around a few building that weren't perfectly level)

You can see his little wooden jig just below it. The jig was designed to telescope out from the center, with allen set screws to hold them in position. He set the outriggers just a bit too long, then could push the jig around slightly as necessary, being wedged between the two sides. He use that jig to set the screen upon. (I found it better to simply tape the film positive onto the window to get it exactly where I wanted it, then position the screen over it. Instead of the jig, I used a couple of small blocks with double stick foam tape. Once the exact location of the screen was established, I would stick the two blocks under the bottom edge of the screen frame)

Steven would put a small piece of thin foam tape in the four corners of the screen for an "off-contact" print. Once the screen was positioned, he carefully taped the off contact screen to the glass, as seen in the second photo.

He normally had a few tables set up around the area, with tarps taped to the floor. On one table, he had built another jig to hold a squeegee slightly off level to the horizontal surface. He used an artist's palette knife to load about a 1/2" to 3/4" layer of screen ink along the entire blade of the squeegee.

He had a few stools in his car of varying heights and picked one that allowed him to hold the squeegee just below the belt line. He would get everything ready and carry the loaded squeegee to the stool, step up on the stool, then make one single pull straight up. I don't think he would double coat it. I never saw him do that anyway.

He also had a jig to hold the screen and squeegee for the short time after screening. (Seemed like overkill to me) He would take his time cleaning the squeegee and screen, though I suspect he did that outside when possible because of the fumes of the laquer ink.

The laquer dried fairly quickly on most jobs, then he would carefully fill in any pinholes, imperfections and so forth. When satisfied, he coated the entire back side of the panel with clear 3 hour size. I don't remember for certain which brand, but I believe it was Commonwealth. He told me a story about driving all the way to Chicago to buy the last few quarts of the stuff he was using because they told him they were changing the formula or discontinuing it. He lived in central Nebraska, so it wasn't your normal trip to the sign supply shop.

After the size set the the perfect stage, he applied a layer of 23k gold over the entire panel (allowing about 3/16"of the black panel edge to remain ungilded) That let the gold show through on the lettering and pinstripes. He cleaned the gold, spun it with a large dry chamois, and double gilded the entire area again.

On almost all bank windows, he screened a back side image that often said "Thank You, please come back". So, he would go through the entire screen process again. The panel for the back side print would match up exactly with the panel seen from the front, but of course with different lettering. The gold layer was sandwiched between the two screen prints.

Once the laquer dried, he sometimes applied a very nice fine prussian blue transparent line around the edge of the panels. He did that step so well, I always thought it was some sort of transparent film. When everything was dry, he applied a coat or two of some sort of WW Window Spar.

Keep in mind that many banks had two entry doors, and the one in Moore, Oklahoma had two in the front and two in the back, going out to the parking lot expansion. He went through basically the same steps for each door. I don't think he ever jigged up the extra doors and simply moved from door to door with a wet screen and loaded squeegee. I know I would probably try to set jig blocks for each window, then flood coat the screen after the first pull and head to the next window or door.

When it was all said and done, I think the key element was the way he loaded the squeegee and made one pull. The rest is common sense screen printing. When I first met Steven, he was a bit leary of sharing his technique. In fact, he told me he would put up a sheet on the outside of the glass to keep anyone from watching him from the outside, especially if he thought someone actually was. After his first Letterhead meet in Boise, ID in the summer of 1982, he began to freely share his information. The next big meet was in the fall of 1982, where he demonstrated the entire process to around 100 onlookers.

I have all his sign kits, jigs, sample plates and a few of his old screens here. They are packed away in storage right now. Hopefully, most of it will make it to the new Museum.


The photos above are from three of his sample displays. His wife, Marie, was a professional seamstress and made his cases out of felt. She also made his clothes.


The panel on the bottom is similar to the ones with the double sided message.

Hope this helps. I know Steven would have been happy I shared it.

Mike

[Raymond Chapman]

Wow. Brings back old memories.

He was a real showman and brought an aire of dignity to our profession. And then his work was really good, also. There are no more like him.

[Doug Fielder]

Thank you Mike, that info is like gold to me!
I wish I knew that I wanted to be a sign painter when I was younger, then I woud have been able to meet some of these old-timer painters. Since I am 30, even when I was young there probably weren't too many around.
I love hearing the stories, seeing the pictures and learning the old techniques so that I can pass them on to our next generation. I would have loved acquiring those old sign kits and samples, someday I will make it out to the Signs of the Times Museum so I can see these master's works.

Thank you again!